Sorry, what is the downside? (foo x) vs. foo(x) doesn't make a difference to me.
Is this an implied downside that amounts to not having used the language very much?
Second, prefix notation is terrible for complex arithmetic. Even the most ardent admirers of s-expr syntax will concede this.
I certainly haven't done as much lisp hacking as some people but I've written a complete html-mail archiver: http://github.com/cageface/macho
a standalone xml parser: http://github.com/cageface/xmls
and an s-expr syntax for python: http://github.com/cageface/lython
So I think I'm entitled to an opinion.
No, they don't.
They eliminate some of them, mostly ones associated with math. The rest of them they replace with different types of parenthesis.
Brackets, braces, tabbing and carriage returns, semicolons. They are all structure delimiters. In lisp you have one structure delimiter "()", in non-lisps you have many.
I don't see how it is terrible for complex arithmetic. Lisp order of operations is explicit. Code does not become more clear because you add a bunch of implicitly defined structure, (no matter how much you were drilled in math school, it is still another thing to remember). Besides, what makes math different from anything else? I end up parenthesizing infix math anyway, simply because it is hard to keep track of the order of operations.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and I didn't meant to imply that you aren't, I was just interested in your reasoning.
To me, 'readability' is a vacuous claim, being that they only thing that 'readability' really means is 'what I am used to'. (I write lisp code for a living, am used to lisp code (lisp was my first language), and I find it much easier to decipher than other languages).
As for arithmetic, most people will find this: (/ (+ (- b) (sqrt (- (* b b) (* 4 a c)))) (* 2 a))
less readable than this: (-b + sqrt(b * b - 4 * a * c)) / 2 *a
It may be that readability is relative but those that find prefix notation more readable in general have been in the minority since Lisp was first invented.